December 7, 2008
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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Well, the NASCAR season is now officially over. Jimmie has his third trophy, Cale Yarborough surprised everyone by presenting him with his championship ring, and now we can declare the 2008 season over.
As I mentioned last week, I spent the day Thursday in New York City. I was invited to attend the second annual Stewie Awards on "Tony Stewart Live” at Sirius-XM headquarters, and who can pass up an invitation like that? So my sister and I decided to plan an extended layover in the Big Apple en-route to a vacation in Las Vegas, and off to the Stewies we went.
I was lucky enough to be invited to the first ever “Tony Stewart Live” show two years ago. Sadly, it appears I was also at the last one.
Unlike two years ago when I was racing frantically to get to the show before it ended because of a weather delay on my flight, this time I was on hand half an hour early, and able to walk around and “mingle” before the show began.
The “fishbowl” where they broadcast the show was packed with people: three video crews and a handful of photographers, as well as Stewart, co-host Matt Yocum, best friend Kevin Harvick, and “National Motorsports Correspondent” Ford Martin (the video will allegedly show up on NASCAR.com as well as a few other locations).
The room outside was crowded as well, with fellow reporters, sponsor representatives, Sirius staff, and the remaining top 10 drivers coming and going.
As I took my seat, I saw a woman to my left talking through the glass to Ford. When she sat down, I turned and asked her if she was Ford’s mom, and she smiled and said yes. We struck up a conversation about how well Ford had done in his role as “National Motorsports Correspondent”, and how much he loved doing it. (For those who don’t know, Ford is the 13-year old son of Richard Childress Racing Crew Chief Gil Martin).
When I asked her if he wanted to do more sports casting, she commented “You know most people ask if he wants to be a race car driver, but he wants to do this. He really likes this.” I noticed Ford kept looking around at the crowd outside, and his mother added “He’s looking for his daddy….who is off getting his tuxedo.” Ford was a champ, and fit right in with the men he was sitting with.
The “Stewie” trophy is a gold painted Tony Stewart Bobble head mounted on a black box. The head still bobbles…something that almost every driver who joined them in the fishbowl noted. (Denny Hamlin seemed truly fascinated by it, knocking the head back and forth multiple times to watch it bounce.) Some noted that the award wasn’t quite lifelike, however. “This one has a neck” smiled Carl Edwards. Someone else commented “It isn’t fat enough”.
Award winners included:
“Best Stunt Sequence” (The Hal Needham Award): to Michael McDowell for his spectacular crash at Texas.
“’Nuff Said” award: Carl Edwards pushes Kevin Harvick in Charlotte trying to discuss Talladega “pansy” comments by Harvick. (Apparently, the note that Carl left for Kevin in his plane following that Talladega incident is now framed in Kevin’s office.)
“Armor All dirtiest move of the race”: Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond. Busch takes out Dale Jr. in the spring; Dale Jr. accidently overdrives a corner and gets into Busch in the fall race.
Best Driver2crew chatter: Honoring the best driver to pit crew communication (determined by listener votes): Clint Bowyer declares Michael Waltrip "the worst driver in NASCAR" at Bristol. (To which Smoke added “He is also the biggest guy in NASCAR.”)
The Smokey Yunick award: Acknowledging the year’s most creative — and ultimately illegal — modifications to a racecar: JGR Nationwide cars caught with magnets behind accelerator at Michigan. (At this point, all three JGR drivers were in the fishbowl, and there was a lot of light-hearted finger pointing involved as to who was to blame, with Smoke saying “I’m just glad my last race in that car was the week before!”)
Best Vocal Performance: Honoring the most memorable quote or sound bite: Carl Edwards’ post race comments on ESPN describing his desperation off-the-wall move at Kansas and where he learned it (from a video game).
Carl actually spent a portion of his time on the air apologizing for all the boneheaded things he had done this year, including apologizing to Kevin several times for the incident at Talladega.
They also presented Stewie Special Lifetime Achievement Awards to Roger Penske and Richard Childress. And they were honored to give this year's Golden Stewie Award to Darrell Waltrip. One of the funniest moments of the night came during DW’s acceptance interview when he commented “You know, you guys ought to do this show every week” to which Tony replied “Um, DW, we DO do this every week. You’ve been on the show several times this year, remember?” Then Darrell continued to dig himself deeper by saying “Well, you should do more than an hour a week”, to which Smoke replied “Darrell, we do TWO hours a week.” “Well, then you should do three hours!” DW laughed.
Kevin Harvick has said several times that he proudly displays his Stewie from last year (which he won for “Best Original Drama” for his Daytona 500 win) on the back of “the crapper in the shop”. So this year, since he was not nominated for the prized award, they created a special Stewie for him…with a toilet paper holder and roll of TP velcroed to the back side. In return, Harvick presented Smoke with a “Harvey”…a specially designed trophy using a Kevin Harvick bobble head, for all the outrageous things Smoke did this year (including his comments about the tires in Atlanta).
When I arrived Thursday night, I tracked down Andrew Fitzpatrick, who is in charge of Sports Media Relations with Sirius, and asked him if this would be the last “Tony Stewart Live” show. His comment was “I don’t know. We’ll have to listen to the guys and find out.” At the end of the show, Matt and Smoke signed off, saying that it had been a great two years, but while this wasn’t good bye, but “see you later”, it was the last regular show they planned on hosting, at least for now.
In all honesty, it isn’t that much of a surprise considering just how much Tony has on his plate as the new owner of Stewart-Haas racing. However, I will miss my weekly dose of “Smoke and Yoke”. Who will forget them telling the fans where Carl Edwards was taking his team bowling, or where Denny Hamlin was taking his girlfriend on a date so that the fans could find them? Or Smokes open rants about “phantom cautions” and the tire debacles?
It is too bad that we won’t be able to hear the weekly ins and outs of Smoke's efforts to get his team up and running, however it is understandable why he is re-thinking his priorities.
And thus ends the life as we know it of “TSL”. I was there November 30, 2006 for its birth, and there again this week for its retirement on December 5, 2008.
I wrote on my first encounter the following: “As I left the building on my way to go play tourist and check out the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, I thought about my encounter with last year’s NASCAR Champ. No matter what someone says, he is a nice guy. Down to earth, and realistic about himself. He treated me just as professionally as he did the well-known NASCAR reporters at the table, and most importantly, looked me in the eye and talked “to” me, not “at” me, when answering questions.”
Yes, Tony Stewart still really IS a nice guy.
Thanks for the laughs, the insight, and the memories.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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